Abstract: In this study, we examine whether female entrepreneurs are held to a different standard than male entrepreneurs in obtaining financing from banks. To test this idea, we draw from the literature on signaling theory to propose that characteristics specific to the firm and the entrepreneur act as a means to communicate (i.e., signal) the inherent quality of the venture and thus impact the amount of capital the entrepreneur is able to obtain. We then explore the moderating role of gender based on gender role congruity theory to argue that capital providers reward the business characteristics of male and female entrepreneurs differently to the disadvantage of women.

Abstract: Excerpt] What if being an entrepreneur were treated like any other occupation—teacher, nurse, manager? What if the decision to found a new venture were thought of as one of many options that individuals consider as they try to structure a meaningful and rewarding career? How would the field of entrepreneurship research be different? In our view, there is much to be learned by conceiving of entrepreneurship not solely as a final destination, but as a step along a career trajectory. Doing so opens the study of entrepreneurship to a wider range of scholarly insights, and promises important insights for entrepreneurial practice, training, and policy. This special issue takes an important step in this direction.

Abstract: The current research investigates how entrepreneurial orientation changes during a chief executive officer (CEO)'s tenure in family and nonfamily firms. Based on secondary data collected from 210 firms representing five industries, the results show an inverse U-shaped relationship between CEO tenure and entrepreneurial orientation, consistent with the executive life cycle literature. Moreover, in family firms the shape of the inverse U is less pronounced and the level of entrepreneurial orientation peaks considerably later in the CEO's tenure when compared with nonfamily firms.

Abstract: Understanding the forces that support and inhibit product development (PD) in family firms is central to explaining their long-term success and survival Our study reveals that social capital and relational conflict among family members do not affect PD directly, as existing theory suggests, but only through the internalization of knowledge among family members In contrast, family members’ affective commitment to the family firm is so powerful that it has both a mediated and a direct effect on PD These results differ across generations of the controlling family, therefore offering an extension of existing theories of knowledge and PD in family firms

Abstract: We hypothesize that a major macroeconomic crisis triggers four alternative responses among nascent entrepreneurs: disengagement, delay, compensation, and adaptation. We also suggest that commitment and ambition (or “high potential”) moderate these responses. Our most important finding is the relative absence of behavioral crisis responses. However, crises may make high-tech founders become more likely to disengage, whereas the opposite holds for founders far into the process. Our study sheds light on the mechanisms behind aggregate effects of crises on the number and type of start-ups in an economy, and can guide future research on the effect of crises on nascent entrepreneurship.

Abstract: Scholars have argued that informality is driven by the degree to which it is expensive or difficult to operate in the formal economy. In contrast, we argue that firms choose to be informal or formal partly driven by industry conditions. We examine informal firms that are not registered with a governmental authority. Based on a large data set of Brazilian businesses, we find that firm informality is positively associated with dynamism, yet negatively associated with munificence and concentration. Our findings suggest that informality is a decision driven by both cost of registering and risk reduction for entrepreneurs depending on industry conditions.

Abstract: Scholars stress that family firms are inherently paradoxical, and that tensions, such as tradition versus change, family liquidity versus business growth, and founder control versus successor autonomy, can both inhibit and foster innovation. Further, theorists propose that firms led by paradoxical thinkers are more likely to manage these tensions and fuel innovative behavior. Leveraging family business and organizational paradox literatures, this multi-stage exploratory study develops measures of paradoxical tensions and paradoxical thinking in family firms, and tests these propositions. Findings indicate that paradoxical tensions may stymie innovative behavior, but that leaders' paradoxical thinking is positively related to innovative behavior.

Abstract: Although previous research has extolled the importance of business failure as a precursor to transformational learning, few studies have explored the conditions under which such learning occurs or the content of the resulting knowledge. We explore several cognitive moderators of the relationship between failure experiences and a specific type of opportunity identification knowledge—the use of structural alignment processes. Results indicate that learning from failure is facilitated for entrepreneurs who possess a cognitive toolset that consists of opportunity prototypes and an intuitive cognitive style. Moreover, we found that prior professional knowledge negatively moderates this relationship.

Abstract: This paper seeks to stimulate additional research on the entrepreneurship-as-emancipation perspective. We extend extant work by specifying the practices within developed regions from which entrepreneurs arguably pursue liberation and then developing hypotheses pertaining to the incidence, determinants, and outcomes associated with departure from such norms. Our survey findings offer evidence to question not only the prevalence with which entrepreneurs in such contexts deviate from the status quo, but also the characteristics of those who enact greater departure. On average, women are not more likely to do so; moreover, they tend to be less satisfied overall when they do deviate highly.

Abstract: While the personality of entrepreneurs can be cast in positive and negative lights, it is essential that researchers understand the complex process through which personalities shape behavior and influence outcomes. Building on Miller's observations on downsides of entrepreneurs’ personalities, we present five broad lines of inquiry derived from the organizational behavior literature to guide future research on the role of personality in entrepreneurial phenomena. These streams of research have implications for how personality is conceptualized in the entrepreneurship literature, and we urge researchers to examine interactions among different personality traits, and between traits and contextual and affective variables which play a critical role in personality–outcome relationships. Finally, we encourage scholars to consider the personality of new venture team members, and how some traits may serve important resource-conservation roles.

Abstract: We draw on the institutional logics perspective to understand different approaches that family firms can use to manage the process of succession. Based on the analysis of 21 case studies of family firms in Germany, we identify four different ways of managing potentially conflicting family and commercial logics that are associated with four different succession processes. Our findings contribute to the family firm literature by improving our knowledge of the heterogeneity of family firms and by explaining different ways that the family logic can influence firm behavior. Moreover, we contribute to institutional theory by showing the importance of filtering mechanisms for organizations that must respond to coexisting logics.

Abstract: Drawing from the behavioral theory of the firm, we examine the role of a long-term orientation in decision making at publicly traded, family-influenced firms (FIFs). We advance a view of the family as part of a firm's dominant coalition and the resulting effects of a family-influenced coalition on the FIF's decision making. Using a sample of publicly traded firms, our findings indicate that FIFs' decision making reflects a focus on a long-term orientation, manifested in the greater accumulation of slack resources, less strategic risk taking, and lower bankruptcy risk than non-FIF firms.

Abstract: Family firms' decisions to hire nonfamily managers are influenced by agency costs, socioemotional wealth concerns, and the availability of high-quality nonfamily managers in the labor pool. We hypothesize that owing to these factors, family ownership and intrafamily succession intentions will be negatively associated with the proportion of nonfamily managers in private small- and medium-sized (SME) family firms. However, firm size is hypothesized to positively moderate those relationships because as family firm size increases, the benefits of hiring nonfamily managers rise faster than the costs. Tobit regression analyses of 7,299 private SMEs support our hypotheses.

Abstract: This study investigates how employees' perceptions of adverse work conditions might discourage innovative behavior and the possible buffering roles of relational resources. Data from a Mexican-based organization reveal that perceptions of work overload negatively affect innovative behavior, but this effect gets attenuated with greater knowledge sharing and interpersonal harmony. Further, although perceived organizational politics lead to lower innovative behavior when relational resources are low, they increase this behavior when resources are high. Organizations which seek to adopt innovative ideas in the presence of adverse work conditions thus should create relational conduits that can mitigate the associated stress.

Abstract: Family firm scholars often reference the legacy concerns or intentions of families when explaining strategic decision making in family firms. Yet, the concept of family legacy is not clearly define...

Abstract: Classical network theory states that social networks are a form of capital because they provide access to resources. In this article, we propose that network effects differ between collectivistic and individualistic contexts. In a collectivistic context, resource sharing will be “value based.” It is expected that members of a group support each other and share resources. In contrast, in an individualistic context, resource sharing will be more often based on reciprocity and trust. Hence, we hypothesized that networks will be more beneficial in individual contexts compared with collectivistic context. We found partial support for our hypotheses.

Abstract: This study examines the relationship between prenatal testosterone exposure (PTE) and selection into entrepreneurship. We argue that the relationship between PTE and entrepreneurial intent is posit...

Abstract: Entrepreneurs have two key aims in managing their ego-networks: extending reach to valuable resources and facilitating resource acquisition. This study provides a synthesis of the brokerage, cohesion, and embeddedness literatures to develop and present a multilevel theoretical framework and analytical model that treat both aims jointly. It makes three contributions. First, it highlights a trade-off that entrepreneurs face in allocating their available networking time and energy while pursuing these two aims. Second, it explores the central role of two types of embeddedness—relational and structural—in resolving this trade-off. Third, it helps entrepreneurs decide when to embed a particular dyadic connection relationally or structurally. We show that entrepreneurs can better balance their dual aim by structurally embedding some ties rather than trying to relationally embed all. The resultant network is one that meshes characteristics of brokerage and cohesive ego-network structures.

Abstract: Much scholarly attention has been paid to the internationalization of family firms. In this paper, I contend that our knowledge remains limited because of a dominant focus on decision making. I problematize this dominant focus in the literature, propose assemblage theory as a new lens through which to examine family business internationalization, and draw attention to new research questions constructed around the conceptualization of internationalization as a destabilizing influence on family firm logics and routines. In doing so, I pay particular attention to processes associated with internationalization triggers, geographic distance, cultural differences and the family firm as an unfamiliar market actor, and to temporal considerations associated with these processes.

Abstract: Many family business owners want their offspring to continue the family business after they have retired. However, they may lack “willing successors.” Drawing on resource–based logic, this paper pr...

Abstract: Corporate entrepreneurship managers often need to terminate projects to maximize their innovation portfolios’ commercial prospects. Drawing on the attention–based view of the firm, we develop a mod...

Abstract: Early stage high-tech firms are confronted with a number of challenges related to the homogeneous and technical nature of the start-up team. Attracting outside board members can alleviate these challenges and consequently enhance firm performance. Building on team production and human capital theory, we study how outside board human capital affects technological and market performance. Our results, based on a longitudinal panel data set consisting of 562 firm-year observations in 80 young high-tech ventures in Belgium, show that outside board-specific experience, diversity, and tenure are important determinants of firm performance. We discuss implications for research and practice.

Abstract: Knowledge-based theories of entrepreneurship infer transfer of knowledge from the effect of labor mobility on entrepreneurial entry. Yet, simple selection or situational mechanisms that do not imply knowledge transfer may influence entrepreneurial entry in similar ways. We argue that the extent to which such alternative mechanisms operate, labor mobility predicts entry but not subsequent performance for entrepreneurs. Analyses of matched employee–employer data from Sweden suggest that high rates of geographical and industry mobility increase individuals’ likelihood of entrepreneurial entry but have no effects on their entrepreneurial performance. This indicates that the relationship between labor mobility and entrepreneurial entry do not necessarily imply knowledge transfer.

Abstract: This article studies the event history of business foundation. Three theoretical concepts—human, financial, and social capital—are linked to investigate how entry into self-employment varies over time. Data from a cohort of Dutch inhabitants born in 1939/1940 who have been interviewed three times during their lives (in 1952, 1983, and 1993) allows for testing hypotheses that state clear differences between two different roads toward business ownership. Empirical results show that the baseline hazard decreases with time for transgenerational entrepreneurs with self-employed parents, but increases for self-made start-ups. Social capital is a better predictor for starting an enterprise than human capital.

Abstract: Self-employment is often seen as an attractive alternative to wage employment, despite lower welfare protection, higher risks, and more required effort than in the latter. It is then important to investigate why individuals choose self-employment. In addition to potential earnings, other factors may be considered, including displacement, uncertainty, unemployment risk, and dissatisfaction. Building on a job quits model, we propose an empirical representation of transitions to self-employment, which includes subjective evaluations of pecuniary and nonpecuniary satisfaction on the previous job. Additionally, we focus on the dynamics of job satisfaction, highlighting the role played by shocks in subjective evaluations.

Abstract: We study the reluctance of family firms to accept private equity (PE) investors and the impact of PE on family firms' performance. We analyze the productivity growth in a sample of 257 PE-backed family firms, 143 of which were run by the founding generation. We compare these firms with both non-PE-backed family firms and non family PE-backed firms. We find that family firms accessing PE show lower productivity growth before the initial PE round, which is driven by an imbalance between inputs and output, especially in founder-controlled firms. Our results also confirm the positive impact of PE involvement on productivity growth in founder-controlled firms.

Abstract: This study examines how angel investor–entrepreneur task conflicts are related to portfolio company innovativeness and how this relationship is moderated by the level of agreement on priorities, diversity of entrepreneurial experience, and the level of communication. Using survey data gathered from 54 teams of angels and entrepreneurs in Belgium and the United States, we show that the negative relationship between task conflict and innovativeness is more severe when the teams have lower levels of agreement on priorities, when there is less diversity of experience in the team, and when the teams communicate more frequently.

Abstract: Drawing on the literature on social ties, we develop a model toward entrepreneurs’ assessments of early international entry. We argue that social ties in foreign markets trigger entrepreneurs’ asse...

Abstract: This article explores the effects of changes in the initial venture team on a firm's failure risk by considering firm age. The results show that founder exits are especially critical for firm survival in the first years of a firm's existence, whereas the entry of a new team member is more beneficial in later years. Further, an investigation of multiple founder exits shows that the time that elapses between two exits has a U-shaped relationship with a firm's hazard risk. Discussing these findings in terms of imprinting and the liability of newness, we contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of venture team dynamics and firm survival.